Dear Editor,
In The Jamaica Observer of December 14, 2012, one Kenneth Jones wrote that “successive governments have found it difficult to think big, as Seaga did and still does. They have become so accustomed to begging and borrowing that it has become a nasty habit that shames us and makes nonsense of the claim of Independence”.
Mr Jones positions Mr Seaga as a “big thinker” and one who seems not to have had “the nasty habit of begging and borrowing”.
For those who would wish not to be fooled, I hereby commend the assessment of Timothy Ashby, director of the Office of the Caribbean Basin from the US Department of Commerce, shortly after Mr Seaga left office as prime minister in 1989: “Despite one billion in US dollar development assistance... Edward Seaga failed to transform Jamaica’s economy during more than eight years in office”.
If you wish to dismiss Ashby’s assessment as coming from an outsider, think of the late Carl Stone who was of the view that, “despite the massive external assistance to the Jamaican economy under Seaga’s leadership, production levels in 1987 were still below real output years between 1970 and 1976”.
How could Mr Seaga have got such “development assistance” or “massive external assistance” without begging and borrowing?
So much for Mr Seaga’s “big thinking” and not having the “nasty habit of begging and borrowing”.
Delano Franklyn
delanofranklyn@cwjamaica.com
In The Jamaica Observer of December 14, 2012, one Kenneth Jones wrote that “successive governments have found it difficult to think big, as Seaga did and still does. They have become so accustomed to begging and borrowing that it has become a nasty habit that shames us and makes nonsense of the claim of Independence”.
Mr Jones positions Mr Seaga as a “big thinker” and one who seems not to have had “the nasty habit of begging and borrowing”.
For those who would wish not to be fooled, I hereby commend the assessment of Timothy Ashby, director of the Office of the Caribbean Basin from the US Department of Commerce, shortly after Mr Seaga left office as prime minister in 1989: “Despite one billion in US dollar development assistance... Edward Seaga failed to transform Jamaica’s economy during more than eight years in office”.
If you wish to dismiss Ashby’s assessment as coming from an outsider, think of the late Carl Stone who was of the view that, “despite the massive external assistance to the Jamaican economy under Seaga’s leadership, production levels in 1987 were still below real output years between 1970 and 1976”.
How could Mr Seaga have got such “development assistance” or “massive external assistance” without begging and borrowing?
So much for Mr Seaga’s “big thinking” and not having the “nasty habit of begging and borrowing”.
Delano Franklyn
delanofranklyn@cwjamaica.com